Egg Carton Bird Masks

Use something as simple and everyday as egg cartons to create these beautiful masks. They’re like a menagerie of birds.

Supplies Needed:

Egg cartons
Scissors
X-acto knife
Hot glue gun
Craft paint/watercolors elastic ribbon

Steps:

Cut the flaps off the carton and turn it on its side.
Cut off the 2 top compartments to use as the mask. See how it resembles a bird with eyes and a beak?
Use an X-acto knife to cut out holes in the center of the eyes.
Now comes the fun part. Using the rest of the carton, cut out feathers and other features and hot glue them to your mask. You can also use regular paper to create a longer beak.
Paint all the parts of the mask using craft paint or watercolors.
Hot glue an elastic ribbon to the back of the masks.

Thank you to Sweet Paul Magazine >>

Mask Setup from Sweet Paul Magazine

Complete Masks from Sweet Paul Magazine

Egg Carton Owls

Supplies Needed:

Egg cartons
Scissors
Glue
Markers
Optional: feathers, buttons, rick-rack

Steps:

Cut off the base of the carton & cut as shown.
Cut wings from the side
Cut feet from the top.
Glue the two pieces together.
Stick on buttons for eyes.
Color & decorate your owl.

Thank you to Michelle McInerney at MollyMooCrafts >>

Pine Cone Owl

Supplies Needed:

Large pinecones
Felt (5 colors)
Googly eyes (I used 1/2" round eyes). You can also use felt or paper to create the eyes.
Scissors
Hot glue gun
Stapler (or tacky glue)

Steps:

First, cut out your felt. You can mix up the colors any way you want, but here is a suggestion:

• rust for 2 wings in a leaf-ish shape (2 3/4" long/1 1/4" at widest point)

• orange for the beak (3/4" wide x 7/8" tall)

• dark brown for the face/ears (2 3/4" wide x 1 1/2" tall at highest point)

• turquoise for 2 large eye circles (1 1/4" round)

• mustard for 2 small eye circles (7/8" round)

(Your measurements may differ, depending on pinecone size & your preference, but I've listed them anyway, as a guideline.)

The shapes are so forgiving, & it doesn't have to be perfect.

Just get out your scissors & cut!

Snip the largest eye circles all the way around, as pictured in the slideshow.

Next, attach the beak to the face with hot glue.

Now, stack the pieces in this order & use a stapler to keep it all together. (I have 25 minutes to do this craft with a handful of 9 year olds. I was trying to think of the quickest way to assemble without having to use glue.) And, honestly, my stapler did give me an attitude. So, if you're not pressed for time, use the hot glue gun!

Attach the googly eyes (or felt- or paper-made eyes) with hot glue.

TIP: apply the hot glue to the felt first, & then place the googly eyes on top of the glue. The tip of the hot glue gun can melt the back of the googly eyes & cause a googly mess.

Finally, attach the face & wings to the pinecone with more hot glue.

Thank you to Nikki at Whimsy Love >>